Well, in terms of money raising the H4H collecting is still going strong, offline that is, which is good because the sables marathon is so far away still, in all reality the most money will be raised immediately before and after I'd imagine.  that said I must have a figure in the region of a few hundred quid already so thanks to those who have contributed so far.

In terms of my race fee, I have made my own payments and there are a few things in the pipe line to get some money for it.  the sponsorship is looking up with a few interested parties hopefully getting involved and my parents have kindly volunteered to hold a car boot to raise money! how kind!

Finally the training is going well, its nice to come away from a run without being injured.  Today is a rest day as I ran twice yesterday, 5k of speed work then 11k just to put some distance in my legs.  Admittedly I felt tired in the second run, which was exasperated by having to run past my mates in the pub!

Having said this, I think there may be enough in the tank for a tidy 9 miler tonight, I'll have to see, I don't want to end up injured again...

I think the reality of the Marathon des Sables is sinking in a bit more now, and it does feel quite daunting.  It will be worth it in the end.  Besides getting fit (obviously) I have already trained in the desert, during summer for periods of more than 2 hours at a time when I was in Iraq, so to a point at least I'll know some of what to expect...

I think I'll feel a lot better after a sustained period of fitness and when I am regularly running 10 miles with long runs extending to 15 bi-weekly.

Alec